Mark-holder for bales



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEL HENRY W. GOODRIOH, OF CHELSEA, AND EDWARD A. LOOKE, OF BOSTON,

. MASSACHUSETTS.

MARK-HOLDER FOR BALES, &c.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,365, dated April 28, 1863.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that we, HENRY W. GOOD- RICH, of Chelsea, and EDWARD A. LocKE, of Boston, both in the county of Suifolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new means for securing labels or marks to packages of fibrous material; and we do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of our invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

In the transportation of heavy bales of cotton, packages of wool, hemp, Src., the covering thereof becomes torn and worn away by rough usage which they receive in transit, and as the packages are identified by marks on the covering, or by labels connected therewith, and, as these become obliterated and lost, much confusion arises from want. of means of identification. lt is therefore a desideratum to provide a means for marking cotton bales, Svc., which shall be free from the objections before mentioned as attendant on the common practice. y

Our invention consists in securing marks or labels on or in s uch packages by means of an instrument or device to, in, or on which the mark or label is affixed or secured, which device is so shaped as to be easy of insertion into the fibrous material and to be difficult of withdrawal therefrom by reason of barbs, corners, projections, or indentations of such shape as to displace and slip past the fibers during insertion and to seize upon them or be filled by them when moved in the opposite direction.

The form of the instrument or device may be greatly varied 5 but so long as it is so shaped as to be easy of insertion and difficult of extraction, and is provided with some form of label or mark, or provision for attachment or insertion of one, the changes made are but modifications of the same invention. This is illustrated in the drawings.

Figure l shows a pointed and notched spindle with an eyelet-hole at the outer end, to which the tag or label is secured. Fig.'2 exhibits a device designed to be entirely buried within the substance of the bale, the label being connected with the instrument by the wire b, as shown; and Fig. 6 is a modification of the same device.

This device is inserted into the bale bya (Shown in Fig. 2.)

tubular punch, c.

In Fig. 2 the shoulder formed at about the center of the device is for the same purpose as the notches in Fig. 1 and the barbs in Figs. 3 and 4, and the outer end of the device, as illustrated in Fig. 2, is notched, as there shown, to cause additional resistance to its extraction.

In Fig. 3 a head is shown as being xed to the outer end of the instrument. This may serve to confine a leather or other tag when the spindle is passed through the label, or the head may itself be the medium which bears the identifying mark for the bale, as it may be stamped or engraved thereupon, or a separate metallic label may be inserted 0r set within the head, or may envelop it.

Fig. 4 shows a pointed and barbed shaft, which is made tubular at its outer end, so that a label may be rolled up and inserted within the tube, which may then be corked orplugged, and the label may also be wired to the instrument for additional security.

Fig. 5 differs but slightly from Figs. 2 and 6. The label-wire is secured within the body of the instrument, which is kept from being withdrawn from the bale by the fibrous material closing over the base of the cone, the slight cylindrical projection from said base being intended merely as a guide for the punch or set a., with which the instrument is forced into the bale. A cavity, however, would answer the purpose as well, the end of the punch a being formed to match.

If in any goods it is found difficult to drive the device into the package a rod with a conical end may first be used to form a hole in which to drive it. l

We claim as a new article of manufacture- A device, constructed substantially as described, with barbs, corners, or indentations, or otherwise so shaped and arranged as to render it easy of insertion in and difficult of extraction from packages of fibrous material, when said device is provided with means for securing thereunto or therein an identifying mark or label, or is itself impressed with an identifying mark.

Executed this 20th day of February, A. D. 1863.

HENRY W. GOODRIOH. EDWARD A. LOOKE.

In presence of- J. B. CROSBY, ARTHUR NEILL. 

